Posted on 09/01/2012 1:16:40 PM PDT by Lazamataz
Recently, the GOP passed some Presidential primary and delegate rules changes, in a very shady manner, that enraged conservatives. This rule will lessen the impact of delegates, and soften the voice of conservatives and Tea Party members. I was one of those who were enraged. In fact, I was at the front of the parade.
However, in life and especially in politics, not all is as it seems. One of Mitt Romney's closest advisors, a man by the name of James Bopp Jr., led the charge to prevent the rules from being this drastically changed. In a letter he wrote, he states:
This is the biggest power grab in the history of the Republican Party because it shifts the power to select delegates from the state party to the candidate. And it would make the Republican Party a top down, not bottom up party.
It would also hurt state parties because they use delegate selection as a way to honor party volunteers and party contributors. A Presidential candidate will have his own agenda for delegate selection. As a result, this always is a threat to party regulars who make up most of our delegates. But it is also a threat to both moderates and conservative who could be purged, depending on who is the Republican Presidential nominee.
This proposal is an over reaction to the problems in a few states where Ron Paul delegates threaten to not support the winning Presidential candidate. I agree that they should honor that pledge, but that can be fix by a few tweaks in a few state laws. Massachusetts handled this successfully by requiring an affidavit promising to vote for the candidate, Mitt Romney, who carried the state. But the Rules change here is overkill -- killing a fly with a sledgehammer.
After the Rules change imbroglio, I decided not to dash off a furious editorial, but instead to let time reveal all the workings, and to allow a little cooling off period. I'm glad I did. It's not as simple as it seemed.
Are there some scoundrels in the Republican party? Absolutely. John Boehner, who ruled against the floor vote in an entirely arbitrary way, springs to mind. One cannot help but think that Karl Rove clapped his chubby little hands together upon the Rules Change, as well. John Sununu, another villain in this power grab, may have been instrumental in removing key Florida delegates from the Rules Commitee. Perhaps the largest and most damning villain in the fiasco is Ben Ginsberg, who is Romney's chief legal advisor. It appears he was interested in even more power-consolidating Rules Changes.
There will be more revelations in the days ahead. It has been leaked to me that there will be more to follow, and that it may well show that Romney's camp initially wanted the Rules Change -- to undercut the Ron Paul brigades -- but when some of the party Establishment took the ball and ran too far downfield, that many in the Romney camp backed off of support. Of course, at that time, it was too late. The blue-blood establishment hacks had grabbed the concepts, racheted them up, and ran as hard as they could for the goal line.
So, we are starting to see the first glimmers of discontent in the Romney camp over the Rules Changes. If more follows, the changes may well be addressed -- with a little push from us, the Dreaded Grassroots.
The fact remains, though, that the Rules, having been changed, are horrific for the grassroots conservative and Tea Party members.
Romney, if he wants our support, should lead.
He should get in front of some conservative groups and let us know that the Rules will be changed again to allow our voices to be heard. We do understand if Romney himself cannot do it, since it is an old chestnut -- run to the right for nomination, run to the left for election -- but a high level surrogate would help us believe his intent.
The jury is still out. Is Romney willing to forego conservative support? We shall see. The blowback from a Romney rejection would be tragic for his election efforts.
The rumblings appear to be in Mitt's camp.
Stay tuned.
from your scenario, Romney would not put a stop to the take over-tho let the power of the people go to washington. Wow, what a force to reckon with, he's so good.
You are the 137th Satisfied Customer!™
Go back to basics. Would Mitt Romney, Business tycoon, Savior of the 02 Olympics, allow someone to undercut his business plan to the Presidency?
HELL NO. Did this blindside him? One cannot believe Romney’s record as a leader and also believe some rogue faction did him dirty. There is no credible way to jibe the two.
Ergo, Romney knew all about it and the rest is damage control.
If I am wrong, so be it. But I doubt very much I am based on facts in evidence.
Laz, I’d love to be on a ping list for your more “serious” material, such as this post today. But I think I don’t need endless discussions of “hitting it” and “this thread is useless without pictures” .... Can I get one without the other? ;o)
He's offended (politically) too much of the current Republican party base to hold them for long.
I'll ask you a question in return: Have you ever heard of a business tycoon being undercut by underlings? (coughcoughSteveJobscoughcoughLeeIacoccacoughcough)
I will definitely alert him. I can say this also- they KNOW about us in D.C. I mean “we” as citizens. For example- we should NEVER forget what “WE” did with Harriet Miers (sp) or the amnesty bill W wanted to pass with McCain’s assist. We have SEEN results when we’ve been enthusiastically united.
We know there is an enormous amount of concentrated power in D.C. on the right and the left. It is human nature that some will be blinded and corrupted by the power and it is up to me, up to all of us to “Go Clint” on them regularly and REMIND them WE OWN THIS COUNTRY...you merely represent us.
My ping list is only for my serious, original-works editorials. Ergo, you are the 138th Satisfied Customer!™
Damn!
I am sure as hell voting for Tom Hoefling now.
Oh wait. "Color my vote". Aw hell. Now the Obama crowd will accuse me of waysizm.
Sure. But we aren’t talking about CEO of LAZ Lemonade Stand Inc. This is the Big chair. Pres of the US/Leader of the Free World.
NO ONE would let anyone but Ninja level, to the death allies into ANY position that could gut them and scuttle their chances.
They excluded Palin for speech verbage. Imagine the benefit she could have had. But that was not part of his Bach level orchistrated plan. He took the loss to keep on script.
Now if he is willing to willingly sacrifice her open support, I’d say his ship is pretty tight and his plan on course.
Nope. There are no ‘accidents’ at this level of play.
I'm trying to figure out which character he is in The Godfather.
At least we allowed actual debate and real votes.
And there wasn't a teleprompter in sight.
And Apple Computers and the Mustang Division of Ford, are?
Nope. There are no ‘accidents’ at this level of play.
No, but there are betrayals of trust.
I'm hearing rumblings on dumping Rove... in theory, because of his 'Akin murder' joke, but we know that would be glossed over in a heartbeat, if Rove was still in favor.
(This is kinda like Kremlin-watching, lol)
Well, at least you have that option. The paperwork is filed in the great State of Texas.
In regards to the ‘White Horse Prophecy’, the other day an enthusiastic Mitt supporter here, posted this.
“”It was great—it did what it had to do. Now the GOP can unite and do battle with the Democrats—I think the full armor of God has been put on and the sword of truth drawn. This will be a fight that needs to be won. What Mitt started tonight was nothing short of a Crusade. Maybe Joseph Smith was right when he said a Mormon President would someday save the nation. If Mitt can do it—bring back jobs and prosperity he should have his face carved on mountain sides! Dang, he looked like a president.””
Sonny. But instead of raging, he cries.
I'm simply passing on some information I was given- I'm not here to argue about Romney.
I do know, having worked in large organizations that managing power is a challenge for EVEN THE BEST OF US. I detest what goes on in D.C.- but I don't have illusions that we will EVER see a group of saints governing us. The best I hope for is a lot of "do-nothing" sessions of Congress.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.